The Impact of Internet Pornography on Married Women: A Psychodyna ...

This magazine played a major part in transforming the industry from a sleazy under the counter business to a multibillion-dollar industry. The invention of the camera and moving pictures offered yet other ways of producing and disseminating pornography. The advent of the Internet, originally created for military and perpetuated for academic communication (Young, 2000), has emerged as the technology of the 2000s for creating and distributing pornography.

Internet pornography was an unknown phenomenon just 20 years ago. However, since the mid-1980s, the growth of the Internet has been exponential. The price of personal computers has dropped and Internet browser software has become readily available (McKenna & Bargh, 2000). For enterprising individuals this proved to be an inexpensive and effective media to market pornography. Suddenly pornography was available with a click of the mouse and enjoyed almost immediate success. In fact, the pornography Internet sites were the first sites to generate an income (Rossetti, 2002). Internet pornography generated $1 billion in revenues in 1988 alone. According to Probe Ministries Website (www.leaderu.com), it is now an $8 billion a year business. A 1995 popular news magazine article on cyberporn estimated that 83.5% of all photos on the Internet were pornographic, although this story relied on data that was of questionable validity (Rossney, 1995). Nevertheless, the article generated public interest on the subject of Internet pornography. The rapid expansion of Internet availability has tremendously altered previous definitions, meanings, and understandings of heterosexual pornography. What was once available to a select few is now available to virtually any child or adult, male or female, who has access to a computer and the Internet; and many individuals are obtaining it. Schneider (2000), citing an Oct. 23, 2000 edition of the New York Times states “in 2000, one of four regular Internet users, or 21 million Americans, visited one of the more than 60,000 sex sites on the Web at least once a month” (p. 250). The number of users has grown since 2000. Cybersex activity is quite seductive due to its anonymity, affordability, and accessibility or what Schneider refers to as “the triple A engine” (2000, p. 250).

The relatively uncensored nature of the Internet provides a range of options that make it the ideal medium for transmitting sexual material.